Akatsuki Babysitters
by writer168
Summary: Nagato took advantage of his daughters unusual circumstance and used to help his organization become more human. "Do not argue this with me, Konan. Sakura will fix them whether they know so or not."
1. Prolouge

Their world was void of color and light. They learned to love the rain that poured over them everyday and embraced the frigid air that came with it. In result to that, they became cold. Frozen. Unfeeling. Blind to what their hearts would whisper. Fortunately enough for them, their dying humanity was forseen by wise eyes.

The owner of those eyes had expected this and had an answer to this very occurance- his daughter. She was a naive little thing with bright eyes and a thousand watt smile that any four year old could muster.

"Nagato... what are you thinking...?" Konan questioned. Her arms tightened around the girl she was carrying. The little girl shifted slightly before falling back to sleep.

"I will introduce her to the Akatsuki."

"What?! Nagato, you know her condition-!"

"I know it well, so we should take advantage of this situation. Do not argue this with me, Konan. Sakura will fix them whether they know so or not."


	2. Deidara

He didn't know what to do with this... kid. She was far too young to possibly know any jutsu and she wasn't old enough to understand anything about his art. But he was the only one available at the base and he was ordered to take care of her. Deidara stood up from his spot on his bed and dug around through his closet until he pulled out a clear plastic bag filled with light gray clay and brought it to what he dubbed the 'living room' of the base. A large room filled with a coffee table, a couple of old couches, and a TV.

When he walked in, he spotted Sakura lyng on the floor with her head propped up in her hand and a blank piece of paper on the ground in front of her. Overcome with curiosity, he crouched down beside her.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"... Thinkin'."

"Thinking about what, hm?"

"What to draw." she answered. "What do you like to draw, Deidara-san?"

Deidara blinked. In all the years he had been in Akatsuki, no one had ever asked him that before. It took him a while to pick out his thoughts.

"People, un. Sometimes nature."

Her mouth made an 'o' shape in understanding before her attention turned to the bag in his hands. She pushed herself off of the ground and sat cross-legged on the dull wood.

"What's that, Deidara-san?" she questioned curiously. He smirked lightly and took out part of the soil-smelling substance and placed it into Sakura's small hands.

"Clay, un. You can play withi t and mold it into whatever you want. You have the freedom to change it to whatever you please, hm. It's art. Do whatever you want with it." he said. Sakura stared down at the cool argil before smiling and molding the clay to her will.

Deidara eventually got bored of watching her and pulled out a piece of clay for himself. Expert hands took ten minutes to create a monarch butterfly that he sent fluttering about the room. For some reason, seing the butterfly being so... free... had him groing angry with each passing second.

He blew it up, sending dust across the room.

Sakura didn't look up at the explosion, but to Deidara instead.

"The butterfly was free, Deidara-san. Why did you make it go away? Did it make you sad?"

He couldn't force himself to answer the question. Sakura noticed this, set her clay back into the bag, and went back over to her sheet of paper. Deidara watched as she drew something with her crayons with utmost concentration. When she finished, she hopped onto her feet and trotted over to the blonde with a wide smile.

"Here, Deidara-san!" she exclaimed, handing him the paper, "Just for you!"

He took the paper reluctantly and gazed at the picture. There was a stick figure with scribbles of yellow on the figure's head, uneven blue circles inside the circle which he assumed were eyes, and al ine curved into what resembled a smile. Odd orange shapes sprouted from it's back.

"What's this?" he asked quietly.

"It's you, silly! You have pretty butterfly wings so you can be free too!"

Something ached in his chest as he continued to stare down at the picture. He noticed something pink on his hands in the drawing and pointed to it.

"What's that?"

"The pink thingies on your hands!"

Pink thingies...?

Deidara cracked a smile.


	3. Tobi

A child. In Akatsuki.

Who would think of such a _ludicrous_ idea?

Sakura was watching TV in the living room while Tobi kept an eye on her from the kitchen. His eyes narrowed from behind his mask. She might be the leader's daughter, but he was still surpised that she had been able to survive for this long. Granted, she had yet to meet the more bloodthirsty members of the organization. He straightened himself and walked over to sit beside Sakura on the couch. She looked over at him and smiled.

"Hi, Tobi-san."

"Sakura."

She cocked her head to the side and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Your voice." she said, "It's really deep. Why's it like that?"

They sat silently for a while, the noise of the current TV program being the only sound in the house. Her patience was exemplary as she stared into his one eye hole. Suddenly, she smiled again.

"It's okay, you don't haf'ta tell me. Papa said that everyone has big, big secrets that they don't want to tell no one."

She turned her head back to the TV and Tobi kept his mouth shut for another five minutes.

"Anyone." he corrected.

"Eh?"

"Big secrets that they don't want to tell _anyone_."

Sakura grinned. She hopped off the couch, turned of the TV, then took hold of Tobi's hand. He flinched as she tugged at it. He allowed himself to be pulled off his seat and out of the house. They walked to the nearest hillside and sat down on the soft green grass.

"Why are we here?" asked Tobi a few minutes after looking up at the sunset.

"'Cause it's really pretty like this. Don't you think it's pretty Tobi-san?"

"...Hm."

As he stared up at the sky, he sighed and slipped off his mask. Tobi set the mask on the ground beside him and stared at the little girl. Her eyes twinkled with awe.

"Wow~! Tobi-san, Tobi-san, you're eyes are so red!" she exclaimed, "It's like- It's like the same red that come out of people's owies!"

He didn't know if that was something a four year old should say, but he was amused nonetheless.

"Keep this a secret, would you? Don't tell anyone- not even your Papa. Especially your Papa. Do you understand, Sakura?"

She nodded, still staring into his eyes. His mouth quirked upwards and he slid his mask back over his face. He stood up and extended a hand to help Sakura to her feet. The sky had darkened to it's beautiful navy and the stars shone magnificently above them.

"What do you want to do know, Sakura?" he questioned. She puffed out her cheeks and stared down at her feet as she walked hand in hand with the older man. An idea suddenly the struck as she looked up at Tobi with a toothy grin.

"Deidara-san has clay in his room and he likes to make 'em go boom! Let's go in 'is room and make his clay go boom!"


	4. Kakuzu

2,324... 2,325... 2,326...

Sakura sat down at the kitchen table, twidling with her thumbs silently. Directly across the table was Kakuzu without his hood and mask, counting the money from his most recent bounty. Money had to be deducted from the Akatsuki's finances because of two occurrences. One, Deidara's room had to repaired due to numerous unexpected explosions. Two, the wall in the living area had to be restored because Tobi was sent right through for causing the earlier incident.

"K-Kakuzu-san?"

2,327... 2,328... 2,329...

"What?"

"Dei... Deidara-san said that you have a temper. Is that true?" she questioned meekly.

His hand paused for a split second before continuing to flip through the money.

"Yes."

2,330... 2,331... 2, 332...

Sakura looked back down at her hands. She had been at the base for about two weeks now and had stuck to Tobi and Deidara the entire time. In those two weeks, she had seen Kakuzu either counting money, scribbling down things in his small notebook, or getting into extremely violent arguments with the guy with the silver hair.

"Papa says I have a temper too." she murmured. Kakuzu took his attention of the money and raised an eyebrow. "He told me that I got really mad one time and I broke his desk in half."

That was hard to believe considering that the leader's desk was made of thick wood.

"A temper, you say..." Kakuzu mused quietly. Now slightly interested, he set down his money and raised his eyes to put the entirety of his attention on her. Sakura ducked her head down ever further if it were possible.

"Raise your head. I don't like talking down to people when they're sitting right across from me."

Her head snapped up and her cheeks flushed pink.

"S-Sorry, Kakuzu-san." she said. Her head might be up, but her eyes were glued to the table, avoiding his gaze. Kakuzu sighed internally. It wasn't his intention to intimidate her to this extent. She was only a child, after all. He might be a grown man without many morals, but scaring little kids wasn't on his to-do list.

He sighed outwardly.

"Sakura, when was the last time you were taken out in the village?" he asked. She turned her eyes to the ceiling for a few moments before looking at him with shy, green eyes.

"I... I don't think I've gone. Mama and Papa wan' me to stay here cuz' it's safe." Sakura mumbled. Kakuzu slid out of his seat.

"Let's go, then. I have errands to run and I can't leave you alone."

A look of pure excitement flashed across her face as she hopped out of her seat and ran towards her room.

"Lemme get my jacket firs', Kakuzu-san!" she called as she bolted down the hallway. Kakuzu watched her go with a quirked brow.

Needless to say, Sakura was absolutely ecstatic to be out in the cold, bundled up in her red jacket and lime green scarf. She looked around curiously as she took in all the sights and sounds of the hustle and bustle of civilian life. But no matter how curious she was, she stuck to Kakuzu's side. He was grateful that she didn't give him any reason for him to keep a constant eye out. She was also rather well behaved for her age, letting him do what he had to do without a fuss. She was good company, actually. Compared to Hidan at least.

He felt a tug on his cloak.

"Kakuzu-san, what's that?"

Sakura was pointing to a building where you could see books upon books stacked on shelves on the inside.

"That's a library." he answered, interest piqued, "It's a place where you can read all sorts of books... would you stay here while I run the last of my errands? I'll be back in an hour or so."

She smiled up at him and nodded enthusiastically before trotting inside.

He had taken much longer than he had anticipated. Kakuzu's last few errands had taken him at least three hours to complete. Night had already crested over the horizon and left only a sliver of pink in the far off sky. Kakuzu walked back to the library and stepped inside.

The place was rather barren with the librarian no where in sight. A couple of tables were scattered amongst the room. They were also unoccupied, savef or the one at the far corner. There was a small stack of books on the wooden surface with a shock of pink beside it. Sakura was napping quietly with her head buried in her arms. Kakuzu ran a hand over his masked face and picked her up.

"Mmm... Kakuzu-san?" she muttered groggily.

"Just sleep. I'll take you home."

She hummed in reply while wrapping her hands around his neck and burying her face in the junction of his shoulder. Kakuzu stiffened at her cuddling and opened his mouth to reprimand her. After some quick consideration, he closed his mouth and let out a near silent sigh.

Perhaps, this one time, he could let it slide.


	5. Kisame and Itachi

Itachi was sitting by the window of the Akatsuki House in Frost Country with a thick book of poetry in one hand and a cup of hot chocolate in the other. His sharingan was turned off and thin framed glasses sat comfortably on his nose. Sakura was out playing in the snow with Deidara and Tobi, lauging cheerily. Mostly at the two idiots.

She really loved hanging around them as they were surprisingly well-versed in dealing with young kids. Itachi... Itachi wasn't sure how to handle someone as young as her. There was a point in his life when he was an older brother. Now, the title was too good for him. He turned his head to look out the window to see that Deidara and Sakura had built Tobi into a snowman.

As Deidara broke down laughing, Sakura caught Itachi's gaze and waved at him amiably. He returned the gesture with a slight incline of his head. Sakura beamed brightly before turning back around to the Tobi-snowman. They played around for another long while before Konan urged them all inside.

"But Mama, why can't we play anymore?" Sakura pouted. Konan smoothed down the girl's hair and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"I don't want you getting sick, sweetheart." she replied, straight-faced as ever, "Go take a shower and put on your PJ's."

Sakura nodded happily and trotted down the hallway. When she disappeared into her room, Konan turned to Deidara and Tobi.

"You two have been slated for a mission with Sasori-san and Zetsu-san. Go see Leader-sama."

They nodded at her and walked down the other end of the hallway.

Itachi sat on the couch in the living area, reading a book as he always would. His partner, Kisame, was sprawled across the loveseat with Sakura sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of him. She was a glob of Deidara's non-reactive clay in her hands and tried to make a flower. The silence between the three of them was comfortable, and they had no problem with continuing on like this for hours. That is, until, Sakura raised her head to look at Itachi.

"Itachi-san, where to babies come from?"

Kisame, the bastard, didn't even _try _to hide his peals of laughter. Itachi's eye twitched a few times before he took of his glasses.

"What brought this on, Sakura?" he questioned.

"I dunno. I heard from Deidara-san that babies grow inside mamas' tummies and that the papa puts it there. How does the papa do that?"

Itachi was prepared to give the little girl a full blown speech about the human anatomy, but the cheeky, taunting grin Kisame gave him made him think otherwise. He sighed.

"Sometimes when two people are in a relationship, they decide to have a child. When that happens, the father gives the mother... seeds... and the baby grows in the mother's stomach." he explained. Sakura nodded in understanding and continued to mess around with her clay. Itachi was relieved when she accepted his answer so dutifully. Kisame's second round of laughter certainly wasn't appreciated, but at least she didn't as-

"Can two guys get a baby?"

...

"Well, yes, but-"

"Then why dun' you and Kisame-san get a baby? Don't you have a re-la-tion-ship?" she asked curiously, "So does that mean you put your seed in Kisame-san or is it the other way around?"

Itachi and Kisame shared equally horrified glances.

"We don't have a relationship like that, kiddo." Kisame clarified quickly, throwing down an embarrassed smile, "What Itachi-san means it that when two people like like each other, they you know, get down to business."

"So you two don't like like eachother?"

"NO."

A few days later, Sakura asked the same question to Deidara about him and Tobi.

Deidara choked on his water.


End file.
